My Isle of Wight adventure.

We left around 11:45pm on Thursday night to get to the ferry for half 12 early Friday morning. Our ferry was due to leave at 1am and we got there and got across on the ferry with no problems. We were set to stay in my nan's friend Sheila's cottage for the night and also for the night after IOW finished on the Friday, however things quickly turned awful as we realised Sheila had accidentally given us the wrong set of keys. We decided there was no other option but to sleep in the car for the night, so we drove around for a bit and found a free parking lot to park in and tried to get some sleep. My sister, Amber, and my dad's fiancée Sue's granddaughter Taya (who I was sandwiched in between) managed to get some sleep, however me, my dad and Sue didn't manage to get any. So at 4:30am once the sun had risen we drove around trying to find somewhere we could have a shower; we found a little holiday park but it didn't open until 9am.

We went to McDonalds for breakfast (if you're interested I had a sausage and egg McMuffin plus a hash brown yay) and then went back to the car. My dad looked at a little information booth and found a number for a leisure centre that was open; we'd found one earlier but unfortunately it was closed due to the festival ground being right next to it! However, this one was open and they were offering a service for £1 each meaning we could have a shower and get ready there. So all was not lost and things were okay again! After we'd finished getting ready, we went back to the car and sorted out some things before leaving.

We then drove to the festival ground and parked in the car park at 9am before walking into Newport to have a little look around. My sister realised she'd picked up tights that were too small for her, so wanted to buy something new to wear instead of the skirt she was wearing so we looked round a few shops before she found some jeans she liked in TK Maxx. We then decided to go to the pub and have a pint before walking back up to the festival ground. I got a mixed berry and lime Bulmers, my dad and Sue had beers (I think) and Amber & Taya had fun with their Coca Colas (they are only 13 and 12 bless them). Me & Amber had chips and Taya had a jacket potato. After this we left about 1:15pm to get up to the festival for just past 1:30. The gates opened at 2 and we chilled out for a bit beneath some trees before looking around the little market stalls that were around the festival. At around 4, we headed back to the main stage.

Flags near the market stalls

Palma Violets were first on the main stage and since there weren't many people around at that point, me and my sister got pretty up close to watch them. After a couple of songs though, we got quite bored so we walked back to find everyone else. Didn't really rate Palma Violets very highly but they were good as a main stage opener. After they had finished, me and my dad got pints of cider from the bar and the woman who served me had to get someone to check my ID to make sure it was definitely me in the photo. The guy who came over was messing with me saying "nope I think it's fake, that's not you" but he made it obvious that he was joking and after a couple of minutes the woman came to the conclusion that it was me; the guy said "of course it's her, look at the nose!" I even tried to recreate the silly mugshot.

When I sat down with my pint, I texted my friend Harry who was also at the festival to see if he was there yet. After a little while of texting him we met up by the big wheel and by that point he was already quite drunk, which was rather funny. We went back to the main stage and watched Everything Everything who are quite a strange band but very musically talented. They played Schoolin', one of the only songs I know by them, and it brought back memories from year 10 in school when we had our final show in performing arts (I was put up a year so technically that was year 11, but I was the age of a year 10 so I ended up doing year 11 twice).

The big wheel at night (taken just before The Stone Roses)

After they'd finished we went to the Hipshaker Tent for a little bit before going back to watch Jake Bugg who was incredible. Jake changed guitars for every song apart from one where he'd done two acoustic songs in a row meaning he used the same guitar for those. Also, Harry said "imagine if he was your boyfriend" so I think he might ship me and Jake, hahaha. I must admit I do have a massive, growing love for the man(boy) so I'm not going to complain about that! I filmed part of Lightning Bolt (I did want the whole song but my phone decided otherwise) however it is rubbish quality, but I will still show you it here. I also got a couple of photos during his set so here you go!

Jake on the screen (left) and the main stage (right). The arrow points to him :)

Sorry it cuts off so soon! At least it cut off at the end of a verse.

After this we went our separate ways, Harry went to find his dad and I stood in a queue for the toilets for at least 10 minutes. Not fun. After I came out, whilst I was walking by the bar I spotted my dad which was really funny, talk about being in the right place at the right time! We went to find the others and then went to watch fun. in the Big Top. This however, was fun. Pun intentional. We stood outside the tent for most of it though as tall people stood in front of us; let's just say I am the tallest in the group asides from my dad and I couldn't see a thing. Not even the screens. :( However, we did get a better view from outside the tent and Nate Ruess bouncing around the stage was really funny and somewhat cute to watch. I'm not a fan of fun. but they looked like they would have been really awesome to see if I was a fan.

Near the end of their set, I went to get a burger from a stand because I was rather hungry by that point, and I took my sister along with me so I wouldn't be lonely (and she also wanted to check her bank balance). After that though, we had to stand in yet another loo queue for about 10 minutes, and during that time Paul Weller had started so we went to find my dad who was stood on his own with his bag and Sue's bag - Sue and Taya had gone off somewhere and my dad said he'd stay there, but they didn't see him so had gone to sit on the seats by the coffee bar. When we finally met up with them again, my dad was pretty annoyed but he calmed down quickly as we went off to watch Paul Weller. 

Paul's set was incredible, and he played Start! (a song by The Jam; you may know he was the lead singer) which made me so happy and brought back so many memories. It was one of the first songs ever that I learned to play on bass, but I got a little too enthusiastic with my dancing and accidentally knocked a pint out of this dude's hands! Seeing as they're £4.30 each I felt terrible and apologised many times, offering to buy him another, but he was totally cool about it and was like "it's fine, it's good enough that you were dancing to Paul Weller, don't worry about it". I'm glad he was someone like that rather than someone who rages at people for that sort of thing! I didn't know an awful lot of Paul Weller's stuff, but it was still great fun to watch him and my dad dancing is rather funny to watch. That's entertainment. ;) (I hope at least one person got that pun)

The mighty Paul Weller. Was quite far back for him but still a decent view.

After he'd finished, we went back to find the others and sorted out what we were going to do. Sue and Taya were going to head back to the car early, but Amber wanted to stay with me and my dad to watch The Stone Roses. Unfortunately, she didn't feel too good so we stayed pretty far back, but then because we didn't have such a good view I asked my dad if he was alright with me going further forward on my own. He said that was fine and that he would take Amber back to the coffee seats. There were loads of gaps between people so I managed to get really far forward but more to the side, but I still had an amazing view. I kept going for a little while longer, and I'm so glad I did because then I found Harry again. Watching a band is so much more fun when you're not alone! The Stone Roses were unreal, a few times they dragged out songs for major instrumental solos. I have a feeling most of the solos were improvised which was even more impressive! Not only were they brilliant, but they are now even more brilliant than they've ever been. I didn't even think that was possible seeing as they are insanely incredible. Meanwhile, here's a few photos of me walking down to near the front...

Photo 1: Near the back. Still with my dad and sister.
Photo 2: Walking a little further forward on my own, to the side now.
Photo 3: This was when I'd just found Harry. You can't really tell, but we had an amazing view.

Unfortunately, we had another spot of bad luck. Amber wasn't feeling any better so my dad texted me telling me this. I asked him if I should leave early, and he said yes so I had to leave a couple of songs before The Stone Roses finished. When I got back to them, my poor little sister was sick and shivering really badly so we decided the best thing would be to take her to the first aid tent to get her checked out. Luckily she was fine, it was most likely a combination of lack of sleep, being out in the sun too much and too many doughnuts (tut tut!). However, in the time it took us trying to find the first aid tent and getting Amber seen to, The Stone Roses finished and luckily I could still hear them perfectly clearly. It wasn't all so bad, and Amber felt better immediately after getting everything out of her system. It was starting to rain though so we layered her up in four hoodies and jackets. :')

Finally, we left to walk back to the car. It took us about half an hour but then we drove back to the ferry to go home. I was really tired and grouchy by this point and there were loads of people up on the deck we went to, so I got kind of annoyed with the noise as I just wanted some peace and quiet. Apparently there was someone famous across the other side of the deck and I said "I bet it's someone from a reality show, it always seems to be someone like that in that situation." but then me and my dad walked over to see what the commotion was and it was only Ian fudging Brown!!! I immediately took what I thought and said back as this was a lot better than I could have hoped for. At first I thought it was only him on the ferry, but when they were getting off the ferry the rest of The Stone Roses made an appearance. Before they did though, me and my dad went to talk to Ian and my dad filmed for a little bit. He introduced me to Ian as 'the newest Stone Roses fan' and I can't really remember what Ian said but he said something alone the lines of "nice one" and smiled at me so I smiled back. Totally starstruck, as the dude's a legend! He's incredibly down to earth though. I was going to ask for a photo but he was with his family so I thought it wouldn't really be the right time to ask for one. My dad, however, took a photo of him at least so here it is.

Ian Brown!!! Yeees. He's a bit old now but he hasn't changed too much since the 80s.

Harry was also on the same ferry as us which was really funny as I'd literally just text him saying Ian Brown was on the same ferry as me (this was, again, before the rest of the band made an appearance). His phone had died though so I re-told him that Ian Brown was sat over the other side, and he seemed slightly disbelieving so I showed him where he was. Whilst we were over there, Mani (the bassist) appeared and asked Sue how he gets to the top deck so he could smoke; when she'd told him where to go, he said "cheers love". I wish I was there to see it, but Sue re-telling the story was funny enough! Anyway... it was an amazing way to end an incredibly weird day. For the first half of the day, my dad was singing "it's the best day everrrrr" (as in, the song off Spongebob) sarcastically. This time though, he sung it again in a serious way as The Stone Roses are his favourite band and for him to meet the singer and bassist is pretty unreal! 

Finally, the ferry got back to Portsmouth and we drove home. We got back about 3am and by this point I was just completely exhausted and I had never been so happy to finally be in a bed, in my whole life. I don't quite know what happened but for some reason I didn't actually get to bed until just before 4. After 40 hours of not sleeping at all, I was finally able to sleep and it was beautiful.

This is not coming off for a while. No way.

Overall, I had an amazing time at the festival, there were a few ups and downs but it was definitely worth it! So incredible to say I've seen the artists I saw yesterday.

- Kirstie x
(P.S. pretend I posted this Saturday instead of today)